The Killing of John Lennon

This is a well-researched, fact-based drama about Mark Chapman, the man who, in December 1980, murdered Lennon. Since we know what happened, all that's left for the writer and director, Andrew Piddington, to explore, is the mysterious: Why? And this he does with great enthusiasm, going deep into Chapman's dark, mad mind.

The challenge for Piddington is to make the narcissistic nobody Chapman an interesting character, which is a result he definitely achieves.

But the best thing about the film is that it successfully challenges the Chapman story as it is conventionally told. First of all, we see he was not your typical isolated, rootless young man. He was not abused as a child or tormented as an adult. Secondly, since killing Lennon he has come to symbolise the dark side of modern celebrity: the fan who becomes the fanatic, who will kill for his own 15 minutes of fame. Yet though Chapman came to enjoy his notoriety, that was not his prime motive; he killed Lennon because he thought he was a hypocrite.

What's missing, however, is a sense of the private Chapman. Although we hear a voice-over of his actual words, you never really get a sense of him off camera, as it were. So we never really get to understand him. The film ends with a curious irony. Chapman must remain in solitary imprisonment forever, to protect him from the peace-loving Lennon fans who want him dead.

3. Read the review again and answer the following questions.

1) Is the review positive or negative?

2) What do the stars at the end stand for?

3) What does Cert 75 stand for?

4. Complete the following definitions using the words in bold in the review.

1) Based on authentic information:_______________________________

2) Not being filmed:__________________________________________

3) Carefully investigated: ______________________________________

4) Comments of an unseen speaker: _______________________________

5) A person in a film: __________________________________________

Language devices such as connectors can help you write a more coherent and logical text. Match the highlighted connectors in the review to their functions (1-4). If you can, add more connectors to each function.

1 To give contrasting information 3 To order points

2 To give additional information 4 To show cause and effect

6. Complete a different review of The Killing of John Lennon, taken from a newspaper, using the connectors in Exercise 5.

Here is the film that many people, especially Lennon's fans, have been waiting for all these years. A homage to the great Lennon, different in tone from similar films. (1)_________ he was killed 18 years ago, our interest in John Lennon continues to this day. (2)_________ Andrew Piddington's new film, The Killing of John Lennon, taps into our collective fascination in two novel ways: (3), by presenting a new side to Lennon's killer, Mark Chapman; (4), by drawing parallels between Chapman's actions and our current fascination with celebrity.

Match the paragraph numbers in the film review in Exercise 2 (1-5) to their functions (a-e).

a) Tells us what is bad about the film

b) Introduces the film: genre, director, basic plot

c) Concludes the review in an interesting way

d) Tells us what is difficult for the film to do and whether it achieves it

e) Tells us what is good about the film

Match the phrases (1-5) to the functions in Exercise7 (a-e).

1) The best thing about the film is ...

2) The film ends with ...

3) This is a well-researched, fact-based drama about...

4) What's missing, however, is ...

5) The challenge for the director is to ...